PHOTOGRAPH OF THE WEEK - 18 December 2006

Our seven-day forecasts are now stretching out to Christmas Day.

Everyone here would like to take this opportunity to wish all our many MetVUWers a great Christmas and New Year. We would like to say a special thankyou to everyone for the very positive and encouraging emails that they have sent. It really is great to hear of the diverse activities that MetVUWers are engaged in, from concrete pouring, film making to planning trips on the ocean waves etc. Also a huge thankyou for your wonderful photographs.

The intention is to keep the service running normally over the break and James will be monitoring the site regularly over this period. Please send him an email if you notice anything untoward with the MetVUW site.

Helen Greenfield

We have chosen four photographs by Helen Greenfield for the Photograph of the Week feature this week.

She wrote 'Not sure if these pix are good enough to include on your site (my friends reckon they are but I'm not convinced)... (we are) plus they were taken several months ago 3 September 2006. At the very least, you might find them interesting.

Anyway, one very windy Sunday afternoon, I walked up the Bridal path on the Port Hill in Christchurch. My efforts were richly rewarded as the clouds were doing fabulous things and I sat for about an hour or more watching them.

To the west were clouds that started out as thin ghostly wisps and very rapidly mutated into jellyfish clouds - haha, yes my words.

To the east (Gondola direction) were Kelvin-Helmholtz wave clouds. If you squint you can see them. The Gondola pix were taken about 20 minutes apart. Not a brilliant example of the clouds but the first time I'd seen them in person. ....I had my Infra Red filter with me, which is very handy for photographing clouds - as they stand out more. The gondola pix are examples of its use.

Helen Greenfield

Helen Greenfield

Helen Greenfield

Colin Hopkins

Colin wrote 'your weather site is great. I am a crayfisherman and charter boat operator and use it regularly. There are some stunning photos on your site. I thought you might be interested in this photo I took heading out of Halfmoon Bay at 08:25 on 25 May 2006. I have only just read that this kind of cloud formation has a name.

Yes Colin, this is another fine example of Kelvin-Helmholtz instability clouds.

Ian Chalmers

'Coming out of Hahei at about 16:00 yesterday (3 December 2006) this cloud formation hovered over Whenuakite - I really needed a wider angle lens and couldn't find a better spot to look back on it' wrote Ian.

Alan Hughes

Alan wrote 'Love the weather photos. Would like to see a lot more.

This photo taken Saturday 9 December 2006 from Cornwallis at about 19:30 to 20:00 looking about northeast. Strong easterly. Everything very greenish?

Interesting level of light (brightness) inside the rainbow in contrast to outside.

Brett Glass

'I thought you would like to see a northwest cloud formation over the
Remarkables' wrote Brett.

Keri Mapperson

Keri wrote 'Great fan of your site, we use it almost as a bible as to what our winds
will be like for paragliding here in Queenstown.

Love the stunning photos you have from all over the country, just
spectacular views.

We took some pics of some strange clouds at sunset on the evening of Friday
3 November at 20:40 from the south east side of Queenstown hill, looking North
east toward frankton, and the Crown Range, one big longish lenticular (which
reminded me of the photo's on your site taken from the wairarapa, in a
norwester) it eventually morphed into the others.

I can't remember what type of wind we had that day, but it had been far
too windy to paraglide, and a front was coming across which arrived that
night.
The sunset on the clouds was quite incredible, sadly my photo's never do
nature justice ...

Cheers,
Keep up the Good Work!
Keri'.

Tony Travaglia

'a picture of the transit of Mercury....and a rather large sunspot....' wrote Tony

Alastair Jamieson

'Here are a couple of photos that might be suitable for your site.
Driving from Cannibal Beach to Kaka point in the Catlins (Clutha
District) last Sunday 26 November 2006, my wife and I were caught in an
intense hailstorm at about 16:15.

One of the pictures shows the view from the car (while we were
stopped), with hail piling up on the car bonnet, road and nearby
paddocks. The other more dramatic shot shows the storm departing
eastwards a few minutes later.

Hope you like them' wrote Alistair.

Alastair Jamieson

SUBMITTING PHOTOGRAPHS

If you would like to submit a weather or weather related photograph to the metvuw.com website please click here and send it/them as an email attachment. Our preference is for unmanipulated full resolution photographs.

Please provide the full name of the photographer and as much detail about the photograph - location, time and prevailing weather. It is also useful to know camera and exposure details and the direction the camera was pointing. Most of the photographs that we publish are from New Zealand, however we are happy to consider interesting photographs of weather phenomena from any part of the world.

We are often approached by book and magazine editors for permission to use photographs shown here. We do not divulge your contact details but are happy to pass on such requests to you as they arise. Copyright of all the photographs shown on the site remain the property of the originator. Submission of photographs implies your permission for us to publish on the metvuw.com site unless you specifically instruct otherwise. Photographs containing logos or other text can not be considered for publication. If you have any further queries please don't hesitate to contact James.